Lesson 3 of 81997–20078 min
Symmetric encryption: AES and modes of operation
On 2 January 1997 NIST announced that it wanted a successor to DES, whose 56-bit key had become too short. It did something unusual for a government standard: it asked the world. Fifteen candidate algorithms were presented in August 1998, cryptographers spent two years attacking them in public, and five finalists survived: MARS, RC6, Rijndael, Serpent and Twofish.
On 2 October 2000 NIST chose Rijndael, designed by two Belgian cryptographers, Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen. Published as FIPS 197 on 26 November 2001, it is AES, and it is almost certainly encrypting something on your device right now.
The rest of this lesson is part of Pro
Create a free account to read the first lesson of every path, and go Pro for the rest.
Sources
- AES Development (archived project page) — NIST Computer Security Resource Center
- FIPS 197: Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) — NIST
- SP 800-38A: Recommendation for Block Cipher Modes of Operation — NIST
- SP 800-38D: Recommendation for Block Cipher Modes of Operation: Galois/Counter Mode (GCM) and GMAC — NIST